Gillian Hill

Gillian Hill joined the Psychology Department as a full-time lecturer in January 2017. Previously she taught as a visiting lecturer alongside her DPhil research at the University. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and currently delivers the core modules of Research Methods and Statistics and Biological Psychology, and optional modules including Animal Behaviour. In addition she supervises undergraduate and postgraduate project students.

Gillian works as part of the University’s CREATE research team, her principal research interest being in creative problem solving and specifically insight moments; which are sudden Aha or Uh-oh moments of new understanding. Gillian uses a variety of methods in her research, both interview and online questionnaires alongside face-to-face experimental work, where she explores how psychological and physiological (for example heart activity) factors impact on the experience of insight.

In addition Gillian is passionate about sharing psychological knowledge with a range of audiences. She has collaborated with University of Buckingham colleague Dr Shelly Kemp and Edinburgh Napier University researcher Dr Lindsey Carruthers to organise a conference giving the opportunity for UK-based Creativity Researchers to present research and explore the Psychology of Creativity from a multidisciplinary perspective, looking to build impact, skills and collaborations.

She also aims to contribute to a public understanding of the diverse nature of science and the people who ‘do’ science, with the view that anyone and everyone can get involved. As such, alongside her teaching and research she also participates in activities including school visits and public engagement events, and was a speaker at Soapbox Science MK 2016.